Biden admin calls for digital ID investment, public-private data sharing collaboration
The White House has presented its National Security Strategy that, among other points, calls for investing in digital IDs.
The Biden administration, however, is short on detail regarding this issue and privacy implications, while mentioning the term biometrics only once.
Strategic Objective 4.5 is a 4-paragraph section in the 35-page document that speaks about supporting development of a digital identity ecosystem.
We obtained a copy of the document for you here.
The administration calls for improved digital identity infrastructure that would produce a more innovative, equitable, safe and efficient digital economy.
Like all other justifications for the push to adopt digital IDs, this one mentions conveniences and secure access to government services and benefits, trusted communication, as well as social networks, and improved payment systems.
To get there from here, the document calls for the digital ecosystem in question to undergo fundamental changes, and wants to bring in the private sector both through close cooperation and public-private undertakings.
The latter involves real-time, actionable, and multi-directional (data) sharing.
The White House complains that today, digital identity solutions lack security and privacy preserving focus, and increase inefficiency of both financial activities, and our daily life. The current situation is also blamed for exclusion and inequity.
To solve this, the strategy proposes solutions based on NIST-led digital identity research that would strengthen the security of digital IDs, provide attribute and credential validation services, and update standards for the sake of consistency and interoperability.
Resist this.